First clean up crew

[omarhdz]

Hi there... I'm new into this amazing hobby of reef tanks. Since I don't have a lot of space for a larger tank, I decided to start with a 3 gallon picotope. I've been doing a lot of research. My plan is to have just a few zoas, crabs and snails for now. It has three small pieces of cured live rock, some live sand, temperature is around 78 degrees, salinity is 1.24, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are zero, and it has been runing for two weeks and three days. I top it off with fresh ro water twice a day. I have several critters living in the live rock: two asterinas, several bristle worms, a peanut worm, and unfortunately, eight aiptasia, all of them are gone (by now) after using some aiptasia x... anyway, lights have been off and I just turn them on when I have to check the tank. Algae has not been growing at all, just small white spots on the glass that asterinas keep on eating. My question is, should I wait more time allowing my tank cycling with the lights on before adding the a hermit crab and two snails? I'm not sure if my tank is ready for them since there is not green algae present at all and they might starve to death. Clibanarius tricolor is one of the hermit crabs I want to add first because they are tiny...

[thegrun]

You need to wait for the cycle to complete before adding the clean up crew, ammonia and elevated nitrites will kill them.

[MJV0103]

have you tracked the water parameters to see if your cycle is over? Can't imagine it would take much time for 3G that's seeded with LS and LR. I would personally check the cycle from ammonia to nitrate in 24hr period, if it zeros out in that time, you are done cycling and are all set

[stingeragent]

I can not even imagine owning a 3g saltwater tank. A table spoon of water would change the salinity almost. Good luck to you on that one for sure.

[omarhdz]

Yes, I test the water parameters weekly... Last time I did was on Tuesday and yes, ammonia to nitrate are in safe levels, their results are always zero... Two weeks ago was the same. I keep some notes with the results of the test. Anyway, I will check again before getting any livestock that of course will be introduced gradually...

Pico reefs are challenging but that's what I like. Lots of care, attention and maintenance. Since I'm renting a small room, there's no more space for a larger aquarium... My roomate would be mad for sure since he already owns a 10 gallon freshwater tank and he doesn't want more tanks around his house! For now, I will be keeping this pico with hardy livestock, that's why I'm doing a lot of research. Thanks guys for your answers! I'll be posting some pictures once this little tank is estabilished.

One more question: dwarf blue leg hermit crabs clibanarius tricolor are omnivores, right? And how many should I put in my tank? One or two? I have plenty of seashells for them since they might fight each other. I saw some of them in the LFS, they are very small, like a thumbnail. Zoanthids may be added later, within a month...

[MJV0103]

Yes, blue legs would be okay, you could easily have 2, and they wont bother any zoas